Lansing: Many voters say Gov. Snyder's doing a poor job

By Kathy Barks Hoffman Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The number of likely Michigan voters who say Gov. Rick Snyder's doing a poor job has jumped significantly in the past two months, according to poll released Tuesday by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA. In late February, only 36 percent gave the Republican governor who promised to "reinvent" Michigan a negative job rating. In the latest poll of 600 likely voters, the percentage climbed to 60 percent. Only a third gave him a positive job rating, while 8 percent were undecided. The governor wasn't fazed by the poll results any more than he has been upset by repeated Capitol rallies protesting his policies. "I believe I have strong support from the general public and that's continued in a very positive way in respect to all the reinvention projects we've got going," he told reporters Tuesday. Opinions of Snyder overall were about evenly split, with 41 percent saying they had a favorable opinion of the governor, 43 percent expressing a negative opinion and 16 percent undecided. More than half said Michigan is on the wrong track. Asked to rate Snyder's performance on a variety of budget topics, 71 percent gave him a negative rating on his proposal to cut public education funding by at least $470 per student, or nearly 7 percent. The same percentage didn't like a proposal that would make most retirement income subject to tax for the first time. Snyder also wants to decrease or eliminate a tax credit for low-income working families, phase out the homestead tax credit for those with more than $50,000 in income and get rid of a deduction for donations to food banks, homeless shelters and public universities. Also potentially on the chopping block are tax credits for adoption, stillbirths and farmland preservation and a $600 per-child exemption parents get in addition to the usual deduction for dependents. More than 60 percent of voters also gave the governor a negative job rating on his proposals to sharply reduce taxes on Michigan businesses and cut funding for colleges and universities by at least 15 percent. Sixty-two percent gave him a rating of fair or poor on how well he's doing improving the state economy and creating jobs. The poll was conducted April 27 through May 3 and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4 percentage points. Published: Thu, May 12, 2011